Simple Family – Page 9

Zonderkidz Faith Builders Bible — Perfect Lego Lovers Easter Basket Gift

I received the Faith Builders Bible from Zonderkidz in exchange for a fair review. I don’t think it’s possible for me to give a fair review on anything related to Legos and the Bible, however, because I think they’re both awesome. My son agrees. Still, all opinions are my own…and my son’s.

Do you have or know a child?

Yes. Continue. No. Go make pie.

Does said child like Legos or any other creative building toy?

Yes. Continue. No. Go make pie.

Do you want to find new and fun ways for that child to “own” Scripture?

Yes. Continue. Let’s just assume you’ve all said yes at this point, partly because I’m out of pie links.

You need to take a look at the Zonderkidz Faith Builders Bible. When I say “need,” I mean your life will continue without it, but not quite at the same level of awesomeness.

Meet Elijah.

He’s 10. You’ve watched him grow up here at The Simple Homemaker and over at The Travel Bags. He is a Lego maniac. He’s also a Bible maniac. We’ve had to limit the number of Bibles and Legos he could have, since we live in such a small space.

This was Elijah’s face when we received the Faith Builders Bible:

This will be your child’s face also if you share this lovely Bible with them, say, in an Easter basket later this month.

**What’s to love about the Faith Builders Bible?**

You know, honestly, it’s a Bible. There’s nothing new or different about the Scripture itself, which is part of the beauty of Scripture–the truths are timeless, never changing unless we dolts change it ourselves. What the Faith Builders Bible does is add a new way of involving the child with a Bible story or truth on a hands-on, intimate level.

How does it involve the child?

Throughout the Bible are two-sided glossy pages depicting a Bible scene built entirely out of Legos…or Lego knock-offs, but let’s let laziness dictate and call them Legos. They’re super fun to look at, and I find my kids spending long stretches of time investigating one picture. (It’s also rather addicting to study the images closely and find things like Princess Leia’s head and Luke Skywalker’s torso, but I somehow don’t think that was the point of the project.)

Even more fun and beneficial is recreating the Bible scenes. Because we have an extremely limited Lego collection on the road, our constructions end up almost entirely grey (Elijah mostly has Star Wars sets in the trailer), but that’s not the point. The point is this:

By reading the story and spending several minutes to an hour creating scenes from the Bible, the kids are truly integrating the story into their lives. They’re dwelling on it and making it their own.

Hmmm…that sounds familiar.

Psalm 119:15: “I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways.”

Meditate from the Hebrew hagah means to muse, which is definitely what my children are doing when they spend time carefully replicating the details of the story and telling it with their blocks. It’s a beautiful thing, even in shades of Star Wars gray.

What do the children think?

Straight from the mouth of Elijah:

“I think it’s really cool. but it needs more pictures.”

(See my “cons” below.)

He also said this:

“It would be a lot more awesome if it came with a little pack of Legos and instructions to build one of the stories.”

While I partly agree, further thought made me realize that we have become an instruction-oriented society. When my brothers were small, they created Lego worlds out of the unique and often twisted recesses of their minds, not out of a put-brick-A-on-brick-B instruction guide…and they’re brilliant (totally because of the lack of Lego instruction manuals, I’m sure)!

It has been a wonderful and much-needed stretch for Elijah to not have the proper tools and instruction to replicate these creations, but to have to adapt…because we certainly don’t have any practice adapting. Ahem. Ten people…cough cough…30-foot travel trailer…cough cough…six daughters…cough…one bathroom….

That said, this gives me a fantastic idea for filling an Easter basket: some mini-figures, some pieces that aren’t gray, the Faith Builders Bible, and lots of chocolate. Done.

How can roadschoolers or homeschoolers use this?

Here are some ways we’ve used or scheduled to use the Builder’s Bible in our homeschool/roadschool/life:

Memorize, discuss, and apply I Thessalonians 5:11–Therefore, encourage one another and build each other up.
Study Creation and have your children “create” whatever they want as if they were making the world–no criticism, no rules…except no eating Legos.
Make animals for the ark.
Discuss and build a mansion in heaven based on the verse II Corinthians 5:1.
Tackle any Bible story and recreate it with Legos.
Have the child re-tell the Bible story to an older sibling or parent or teach the Bible story to a youngling.
Read a Bible story, share the related picture, pour out a pile of Legos, and trust your children–the rest will take care of itself.
Memorize the “building block verse” that comes with each picture page; use it for recitations and copywork.
Display a story each week, either those pictured that you recreate or others. Keep it set up in a prominent place to encourage the “musing.”
Memorize the books of the Bible using the fun technique in the beginning of the book.
Memorize the verses and build the creations in the front of The Faith Builders Bible (see the image below). My kids had a blast with that…but I didn’t take pictures–sorry.

What are the added bonuses?

Besides the Lego pages, the Faith Builders Bible has these:

a glossary (or, as they call it, a dictionary),
an index of “great Bible stories,”
a presentation page, and
an explanation of the translation…which may only be exciting for geeks like me.

Are there any cons?

There are no cons, per se, but if I were to have made this Bible, I would have changed a few things.

First, I would have offered just a teeny bit more guidance, because, let’s face it, we are an instruction-oriented world. I would have had two or three “how to make this cool thing” pages to show how to make, say, a cross, a manger, and a tomb…or maybe that adorable sheep they have in the front pages.

Second, I would have provided a list of suggested uses in the front of the book, like my list above, but about four pages long. But that’s because I’m bossy. Grin.

Third, I may (or may not) have expanded on the “try this” ideas. Some of the pages encourage the kids to build something specific, but most don’t, which is completely fine. While we are a creative family, sometimes I just want someone to tell me what to tell them to do…and right now I want someone to fix that convoluted sentence and this wishy washy suggestion for me. This isn’t really a con.

Fourth, I always want more of a good thing–more pictures, more scenes, more stories illustrated, more cookies. This isn’t really a con either. Two cons just seemed so half-hearted, you know.

What about the translation?

The Faith Builders Bible is the New International Readers Version translation, which the notes explain went back to the original Greek and Hebrew for accuracy. My kids (and I…silently) were annoyed by what they (and I…silently) perceived as “dumbing down,” but the book specifically states that it is intended for new readers or people new to the English language.

With that in mind, the kids (and I…vocally) gave it two thumbs up as an ideal choice for a first Bible…although they’re still diehard 1984 NIV fans and think all kids should read big words.

Overall…

The whole family gives the Zonderkidz Faith Builders Bible two thumbs way, way up. It is one book that will not be purged from our trailer.

Go buy the Bible and fill some baskets. I’m outta here…I have chocolate on the brain and have to hunt some down before I dive into those Easter bunnies I shouldn’t have snagged early. You know I jest.

By the way, here’s what other folks have to say about the Faith Builders Bible:

Faith Builders Bible {Zonderkidz Review}

Our Journey With the Total Elimination Diet

I love pie. In fact, I have deemed 2016 the year of the pie, and we are choosing a pie each month to bake; there’s a homemade peach pie waiting for us for breakfast.

I should say that it’s waiting for my family, not for me. I’m not eating pie. And this is why:

I’m on the Total Elimination Diet, which heretofore shall be affectionately termed TED. TED and I are old pals. This is my third time hanging with TED at every meal. It isn’t that TED and I are particularly fond of each other. I think TED likes me better than I like TED. Still, we hang out; it’s a relationship of necessity.

Why hang with TED?

Four of my eight children have had digestive issues as nursing babies. With my firstborn, I did not have the support, knowledge, or confidence to know what to do, nor was the internet a resource at the time. With my fourth, seventh, and eighth, however, I had long given up on support and opted to take matters into my own hands. We do have a pediatrician and pediatric allergist on our team with our current baby, but TED is in my hands.

What digestive issues did they have?

It varied–colic, bloody stools, mucous in the diapers, diarrhea, extreme fussiness, abnormal behavioral issues, neon green leprechaun poo–you know, the usual.

What is TED?

TED is a diet that helps pinpoint potential allergens or irritants in the mother’s diet that may be affecting the baby by eliminating almost everything from the diet and gradually adding foods back in one at a time.

Why TED?

Most doctor recommend giving up dairy and soy, but I had given up far more than and not seen much improvement, if any. I didn’t want to wait weeks testing this and that while his little system continued to be inflamed. So I buddied up with TED. (TED’s a bully, just FYI.)

How does TED work?

Step 1. Take everything out of the diet except for the least allergenic foods. Those are (in America) turkey, lamb, summer squash, zucchini, pears, rice, sweet potatoes, white potatoes, and salt and pepper. (I could not do lamb, pepper, or white potatoes.) After 2-3 weeks all other foods should be clear of Mama’s system and mostly clear of baby’s system as well. I give everything more time.

Step 2. Add something back in. For me it was carrots. Then I got all googly-eyed over green beans. Adding squash was like a party in my mouth.

Step 3. Wait 3-4 days (I also go long) to see if there is a reaction in baby (or Mom).

Step 4. If there is a reaction, take that food back out and bump it back down the list a ways to try again in the future. If there is no reaction, add it to the food rotation and return to step 2.

Step 5. Record everything. I write down what and when I eat, my baby’s reactions and reaction times, and how I’m feeling. For my baby, I include on a scale of 0-10 his diaper color, mucus levels, blood, smell, rashes, and other info. I also record his skin reactions on his face, his mood, and his spit-up and drool levels. It’s work, but I want to know what keeps that plump little tummy happy and those rotund thighs getting rotunder…if that’s a word.

What are the results so far?

I’ve been hanging with TED since my baby was 7 weeks, so five months at this point. While the diapers are still not perfect, I have noticed the following:

less frequent bloody diapers–almost none, in fact
better consistency of stool
fewer facial rashes
fewer foul stools (although we’re currently in a bout of them, so I have to check my records and see what the trigger is…although I think I know)
less gas
less drool
less throwing up…although he did throw up on his sister’s head and in her shoes today–again, something is amiss and I think I know what it is
far less mucus
fewer diarrhea diapers–almost none, actually

I didn’t see an overnight change in behavior like with our seventh baby who was colicky. Baby number 8 never had behavioral issues–he’s just plain happy. What a blessing! But the lack of a sudden change does make it harder to know what’s bothering his round little tummy. If you’re considering TED for colic, you will most likely see much faster results and reactions.

Also, my joints, which are generally achy, feel much better…even good some days. Now that’s an interesting side effect.

This is a slow, tedious process, but it is the fastest way to lose baby fat I’ve ever experienced! Also, it isn’t completely accurate, but many doctors say it’s the best approach we have. Many other say to put him on formula.

What about supplements?

I am not taking supplements right now, because they caused reactions in my previous baby. I will, however, be taking pancreatic enzymes soon, since they have been known to help break down improperly digested proteins that may be getting into my milk. First I would like to find a doctor willing to test my pancreatic enzyme levels to see if it’s my system that’s on the fritz.

Isn’t TED lonely?

Yes and no. We have a daughter with Crohn’s who is on a healing diet herself, so we’re accustomed to the lonely life…and we’re lonely together. Occasionally we both miss something that everyone else enjoys, like a special treat at a church or local fare on our travels, but it’s for healing, so it’s okay. It’s okay.

In all honesty, we have a very social lifestyle as traveling music missionaries, and that involves a lot of food. We are often invited to events or dinner at someone’s home. Some people are very, very kind and intentionally prepare something we can eat. Most people don’t, which is completely fine, as we can always bring along our own food or stay home. If we do go along, however, and end up staying extra long (like at family visits), we get very hungry if the food we brought runs out. That’s not fun.

And in all honesty, when the rare special someone goes that extra mile for these two smiling faces below, it feels amazing!

Why not opt for formula?

Gut health is very important in our family. Crohn’s disease is an incurable auto-immune disorder that attacks the intestines, and a balanced gut is important in keeping that in check. It’s got a genetic link (my grandmother had rheumatoid arthritis, which is related to Crohn’s), and is showing up in children more often and at younger ages, especially in our modernized society. I breastfeed my babies as long as I can partly because we love the bonding and partly to give them the best possible chance at strong intestinal health.

Also, if I learn now which foods bother him, I’ll have a better idea which foods to introduce as he starts solids.

Do I judge anyone who chooses the formula route over TED? Absolutely not! I wonder almost daily if I should go the (expensive hypoallergenic elemental) formula route, if it would be easier to know what was bothering my baby’s tummy, if I’m just being a stubborn ol’ cuss because I’m too lazy to get up at night to make a bottle…which I am, if he’s allergic to me to the extent that I’m doing more harm than good by nursing him. I don’t know. I can’t know.

I’m not saying I’m doing the right thing. I’m saying I don’t know. I do know that I’m doing the best I know how.

I also know that I will once again be going a couple years without cookies and pie while nursing my current little cutie pie…but that’s okay, because cutie pie really is the best kind of pie. Don’t you think so?

If you are considering an elimination diet, if your baby is colicky or has mama-heart-wrenching diapers, or if you are just curious, please ask your questions in the comment section below. I will answer them as soon as I see them…which is soon. I am not a doctor…just a mama and a boo-boo kisser, but I’ve been there. Have I ever been there!

UPDATE (6/21/16): Judah is now 10 months old. He still hasn’t grown out of his issues, although he has improved. He is eating some solids, but very few, and only those which I eat. He mostly eats green beans, avocado, and carrots, although he has sampled many more foods than that…some accidentally. Ahem. He will be doing fine for a while, and then backslide. At that point, I backtrack, and he improves. It’s not always easy; it’s rarely fun; it’s always worth it to see his smiling face and clear skin. The allergist says he should grow out of it. We’ll see!

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Teach Your Kids About the Election Process {Homeschool Review}

Just so you know: I was given a free download of HISTORY Through the Ages Hands-on History Lap-Pak: U.S. Elections by the amazing Home School in the Woods to review. All opinions are my own–okay, that’s a lie. Some of the opinions are actually my kids’, but rest assured that they’re not easily influenced…except by chocolate.

Anyone who knows my roadschooling/life approach knows I am totally into simple. Simple to me involves no printing, photocopying, or gathering of supplies. It means not following directions for numerous little projects. It means not having activities to store for later use and assembly. After all, the ten of us (twelve if you count the furbies) occupy 240 square feet of living space (360 if you count our van)!

That right there is why I do not do lapbooks. Still, when we were given the chance to study the election process by reviewing HISTORY Through the Ages Hands-on History Lap-Pak: U.S. Elections from Home School in the Woods, I bit. After all, two of our girls are voting in their first election this year, and our younger children are asking a lot of questions. I wanted to do the election study with my first, fourth, seventh, and ninth graders and my preschool tag-along in place of our regular U.S, history and government studies, even though it meant suffering through what I was certain would be a home-cluttering, time-sucking lapbook process.

Grimace.

Hold that thought.

Before I get into the lapbooking process and projects, I want to talk about the information that comes with the elections lapbook, because, ultimately, it’s about the learning experience. Right? Right. The “text” is fantastic! The information is succinct, interesting, and informative. It’s well-written and respectful, accessible, but not dumbed down. It is also not politically biased…although I am, so don’t expect that same courtesy here. Wink.

After overhearing a few of our classes, my 17-year-old college freshman said, “Hey, I’m picking up a few things I didn’t know!” Ditto here!

My lapbook was available through digital download, but you can also get the disc. The text can then be printed on regular paper and popped in a binder or printed according to easy-to-follow-even-if-you-were-up-all-night-with-a-baby directions and formed into little booklets. We made the booklets by copying the pages on different colors (because everyone has a favorite) and sewing the binding together with darning needles and embroidery floss…even the four-year-old. We popped holes in the book for her to sew through, and she did the rest on her own with a little tying help from a big sister.

I was pleasantly pleased with the depth of the election study, and I highly recommend it for your grade-schoolers. You get that, right? But the question for our lifestyle (roadschoolers, space-challenged, budget-conscious, clutter-phobic) is the feasibility of lapbooking.

I was right–lapbooking involves printing, copying, many papers, projects in progress, storing papers, organizing papers, gluing, taping, cutting. Grimace. I hate printing! I hate papers!

And my kids?

They…they…well…

They loved it! They loved all the projects. They loved participating in the short, but informative lessons and being set loose on the reinforcing projects. They loved all of it!

And they learned! They learned a lot, and they did their work without being told. I loved that. And, to be honest, I didn’t really mind the papers. The directions were comprehensible; the activities were fun; the papers didn’t haunt my dreams in the night. I know–humble pie. I truly enjoyed our elections lapbook project with my side of pie.

Here is how we handled the lapbooks in our limited space:

I bit the bullet and jumped in with both feet–wow, double cliche! All papers were printed at once, copied in quadruplicate, separated by lesson, and marked with post-it notes so I could grab the pages I needed for the lesson quickly and easily. I kept them all together with a binding clip in my school briefcase. (It’s not really a briefcase, but that sounds nice and official, doesn’t it?)
With each lesson the projects (sometimes multiple, since we discussed lessons without their corresponding projects on driving days and tackled the projects on stationary days) were passed out and put in that child’s paper binding clip. The kids kept those inside their binders, schoolbags, or organizer boxes, depending on their preferences.
Completed projects were kept in a gallon-size Ziploc bag…technically a Great Value bag, but who wants to get technical?
Because we don’t have all the supplies most families do, and can’t really buy them due to budget and storage constraints, we didn’t do the projects exactly as described, but, to quote every other homeschooler on the planet who has, at times, not followed directions, “Isn’t that the beauty of homeschooling?”
Projects were attached to three-hole-punched card stock and kept in the kids’ binders. Why such a “normal” approach? Because we have very little shelf space, and it is “rummaged” every day. To keep the lapbook pages nice and accessible, they need to be protected. Therefore, binders.

By the way, this is what a completed lapbook is supposed to look like…had we followed the directions:

Am I a convert to lapbooks? Yes and no. I will not be using them on a consistent basis, because the kids do need to spread out to do their projects, and there is too much paper involved and space required for our travel trailer livin’. (This would probably be more feasible for a more organized mama or someone in a house that doesn’t move.) On the other hand, I am definitely going to start including them more often, especially the well written lapbooks from Home School in the Woods.

Why?

The kids really learned!
They love doing the projects.
I love that they can do projects relatively independently and reinforce what they learned in the lesson in a fun manner.
I love the creativity exhibited.
While there was a considerable amount of initial prep, there wasn’t a huge amount of work on a daily basis.
It’s a great shift in the dynamic of the week. We rushed the study for the review purposes, but if we were to have spread this out over a few months, it would have been a perfect speed, and would have offered something different and fun to do each week, especially leading up to the November elections. It really wasn’t overwhelming the way we did it, but it would have been perfect slowed down a bit.

I highly recommend the elections lapbook from Home School in the Woods for your grade schoolers. If paper-phobic me can do it…you’re good.

(By the way, while I included my ninth grader, she mostly participated in the discussions, and only assisted in the lapbook projects when our preschool tag-along wanted her help. She also is doing a follow-up study of Uncle Eric’s book Are You Liberal, Conservative, or Confused?)

For ideas from more traditional homeschoolers, check out what these other Schoolhouse Review Crew reviewers have to say:

Do you do lapbooks? How do you handle them?

Mostly Measurable, Manageable February Goals

How did you do on your January goals?

If you did great, great! If you overdid your goals, cut back for February. Remember, make it manageable.

Remember the ridiculously obvious rules for our mostly measurable, manageable monthly goals:

They should be mostly measurable.
It’s manageable.
It’s a monthly goal.

My list is shorter this month than last, because–confession time–I overdid it last month. And because my baby is at mobile stage which makes life trickier…and so crazy fun!

Here are my mostly measurable manageable monthly goals for February:

Family Habits

Breakfast Bible: finish reading Mark aloud.
Monthly family manner: eye contact. We’re still working on this one.
Monthly family home care habit: keeping the van clean. Because we live on the road, we have a road trip every couple of days. If we don’t clean it every single time, it gets out of control.
Monthly character trait: practice finding the positives. This was something we started last year, but it’s going to continue.
Prayer: continue strengthening the family prayer habit.

Family Fun

Have one game night focused on the older group.
Have one game night focused on the younger group.
Celebrate National Pizza Day on February 9.
Bake a peach pie. It’s the Year of the Pie.
Have a Filipino feast! Lumpia, adobo, pancit–I’m drooling!
Reinstate movie night elections or rotation.

Homeschooling

Write two letters each…including mama!
Continue reading aloud The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain.
Teach omelet skills.
Hannah: Continue monthly goal sessions; edit her completed articles. (She writes faster than I edit these days, so I’m behind.) Also continue query class.
Marissa: Find a testing center in Sacramento for two college tests.
Order books for test prep for Marissa’s upcoming management classes.
Complete the Homeschool in the Woods elections study with middle five.
Launch Henty’s Dragon and the Raven study with everybody! So fun!
Start Here to Help Teaching’s writing lessons with Elijah (10) and Rebecca (7).
Continue Schoolhouse Teacher’s Charlotte Mason preschool with Eliana (4).
Continue Slow and Steady, Get Me Ready with Judah (6 months).

Music Mission

Write March 2016 newsletter.
Continue 2016 thank you notes.
Update subscriber list.

Health

Work dog and self up to 30 minute walks by the end of the month.
Continue the two-a-week treat limit in churches
Add seven foods back into my diet. I’m on a total elimination diet for my nursing baby, and I’m currently up to ten foods I can eat.
Find a supplement that works for my baby–just do it!
Make two family dessert night treats that Hannah can eat. (No dairy, grains, sugar, processed anything.)
Continue food/symptom journal.
Schedule a doctor’s appointment–a major phobia of mine.

Writing

Write four non-sponsored, non-review posts here…for you lovely people! This counts as one. Hooray!
Write three posts at The Travel Bags.
Draft my article assignment for Pregnancy & Newborn magazine.
Write a post for Homeschooling with Heart blog.
Send one pitch. Done!
Edit one chapter in my book.

Personal

Beginning Ash Wednesday, read 40 Days of Decrease.
Read Trumbull’s Hints on Child Training.
Read Nagel’s Cure Tooth Decay.
Read G. K. Chesterton’s The Innocence of Father Brown (free Kindle version here). Elisabeth read it, and I like to keep up with my kids, in case topics need discussing, and because it’s fun.
Journal weekly.
Smile more.
Master omelets from America’s Test Kitchen Cooking School Cookbook.
Continue deleting emails and unsubscribing and don’t sign up for any new subscriptions all month…or else.

What are your goals for February?

Connecting Children to Their Heritage…With Pie

It’s my grandfather’s birthday. He would have been 91 today if he weren’t already in the arms of Jesus. So today we had two lemon meringue pies for breakfast.

I can see you’re not following me. Let me jump back a few decades.

Grandpa’s birthday is January 29; mine is February 1. I grew up on Grandpa’s farm. He was the father I always wanted, and of all the people on God’s green earth, he is one of those I love best. Every year at the weekend that fell closest to January 29 and February 1, my mom would bake a two-layer poppy seed cake with custard in the middle and seven-minute frosting for me, and a lemon meringue pie for Grandpa. Grandpa’s sister and her husband (my godparents) would come either to his house or ours, and we would all eat Mom’s classic meal of delicious lasagna, amazing potato rolls, and Grandpa’s favorite fruit salad. We’d sing and open presents and have pie and cake with the frosting scraped off (of mine) and wash it all down with tall glasses of cold Wisconsin milk.

That was one of my (many) favorite times, sitting with my grandpa, smiling for Grandma’s polaroid, eating Mom’s lasagna, and watching Grandpa enjoy his pie.

Every year I share those memories with my children. They know it by heart, but they (at least act like they) love to hear it again.

And every year we try to have lemon meringue pie on January 29 and share stories about everyone’s memories of Grandpa, or Big Bubba as my children called him…although he was a slim 6’0″ and not really the Bubba type. That unusual nickname, too, is a story we share.

This annual pie baking connects my children to their heritage. Who cares? I do, and you should. Here’s why:

It’s pie.
It’s Grandpa. I love him. He is vitally important to who I am as a person. Doesn’t it make sense that I should share that with my children, if only to help them understand me a bit better?
It’s Great Grandpa–they knew him and want to remember him and share their joy and sadness and their own special, personal memories of him and their unique bonds.
Connecting to the generations that have gone before helps children see that life did not begin when they did. They are not the axis of the world and the center of the universe. There is much that went before them and much that will come after them.
Regardless of how small you are in the big picture, each person is a special, unique, valuable human being. Look how valuable Grandpa is to us, how seemingly insignificant things–like a timely scolding, a wink and a poke in the stomach, a “come on, Kid; let’s go,” or a side of peanuts and saltines with my ice cream–mattered to the generations that followed.
It gives them an anchor and a sense of belonging to something big–family, and lots of it depending how far back you can take your pie heritage.
It’s a history lesson. When was Grandpa born? When were his parents born? What was their life like?
It puts Justin Bieber and thigh gaps into perspective. Who cares about a teen idol when you talk about my great grandma delivering her firstborn in a log farmhouse at the start of the Great Depression, and about grandpa coming of age on a farm during World War II and raising teens during the 1960s. Life was different once and it will be different in the future, and Bieber’s hair will not even make the who-cares radar.
It shows how faith carries a man through all aspects of life…from birth on earth to “birth” into the next life in heaven.
It’s a time to remember and to mourn together and to rejoice together.
Did I mention the pie?

Not all my relatives are remembered with pie. Aunt Betty gets mini cheesecakes, my grandma gets her mom’s molasses cake, and my other grandpa gets chicken booyah, because he was the state booyah king. But still, the date goes on the official family calendar for what it is: Big Bubba’s Lemon Meringue Pie Day. It is anticipated and enjoyed, and the memories and lessons of an amazing life are cemented a little further.

Plus, who doesn’t want an excuse for homemade pie?

If you want to launch Family Pie Heritage celebrations, it’s simple. Put the dates on the calendar and make it happen. It doesn’t have to be anything big. Just add dessert to dinner or switch up the menu that night, or watch that person’s favorite movie that week–and share memories. Simple, but memorable.

I miss you Grandpa. We all do.

Guest Post: Make 2016 Your Healthiest Year Yet

Today’s guest writer is Leanne. I first met Leanne at a church in Florida where she was vacationing with her family. We then re-met in Wisconsin at her home church. To understand why she is posting here, you have to know that Leanne is fit and gorgeous. When she casually mentioned that she was 40, I said, “Give me your business card!” She did better than that. She shared her story for all of you.

Here is Leanne’s story:

Make 2016 Your Healthiest Year Yet!

Happy 2016 to all of you! At the start of a new year most people have New Year’s Resolutions. I’ve never been a person to have resolutions…I like to think of them more as intentions and goals. As a health and wellness coach, it warms my heart when I hear people say they want to eat healthier, exercise more, lose weight, quit smoking, etc.

My resolution (intention/goal) for 2016 is to help all of you make 2016 your healthiest year yet! Let me share a little bit about what I did to change my health just over two years ago.

For the past 14 years our family has tried to eat more organic/natural foods. By all means we are not perfect, but we certainly try our best. I still enjoy a night out for pizza, birthday cake to celebrate another year, and a dish of ice cream just because. For the first 12 of these 14 years I would typically put on around 10 or so pounds each summer, indulging in the “not so healthy choices” while watching my boys play ball. When school would start in the fall, I went into weight loss mode to lose those unwanted pounds before our Spring Break vacation in March. It would take me about 6 months of literally starving myself (even with healthy food choices) to lose that weight.

Fast forward to September 1, 2013…the day my health changed forever! My dear friend Kim introduced me to some amazing nutrition products that have changed my health in so many ways, and this was the day I started! Because our family stays away from foods with artificial sweeteners, soy protein, stimulants, MSG, just to name a few, I do my research on what I allow into our home. I did my homework on these products, and knew I needed to jump in with both feet!

Besides wanting to lose about 10 pounds, I also had a lot of digestion issues going on. I was beginning to think I had a gluten or dairy allergy. I also felt tired all the time and really didn’t have a lot of energy. Several times a week I would wake up in the middle of the night and not be able to fall back asleep for a couple hours. I was not the happy, healthy, energetic wife and mom that I needed to be for my family. Exercise–I wasn’t doing much of that either because I didn’t have the energy to do it! I was looking for a convenient and cost effective way to feel better.

Nutritional Cleansing is what has allowed me to release 16 pounds of fat in those first months without exercising, gain more energy than I could have ever imagined, sleep like a rock EVERY night, get rid of the digestion issues I once had (no gluten or dairy allergies for me), and feel so much healthier at 38 than I did back in my 20’s. Over the past two years I started exercising and have put on about 8 pounds of lean muscle. I’ll be 41 in a couple weeks, and I am in better shape now than when I was 20!

You might be wondering what nutritional cleansing is….and NO it isn’t a colon cleanse! Nutritional cleansing is a cellular cleanse (whole body) by putting the perfect nutrition into our bodies. Unfortunately, most of the foods we eat (even organic) are nutrient deficient. Our bodies need 90 nutrients (building blocks) on a daily basis, with 60 of them being minerals. Most people are deficient in many of these nutrients…mostly minerals. One of the reasons we are deficient in minerals is because of the introduction of pesticides in our soils. The pesticides not only kill the bad bugs on the plants, but also the ecosystem in the soils that the plants are grown in. If the ecosystem is killed off in the soil, then the minerals are no longer in the soils for the plants to uptake. If the plants are not able to uptake the minerals, then we aren’t getting the minerals when we eat the plants.

Back in 1997 UCLA did a study on women who reported being anemic, yet ate a salad each day primarily from spinach. We all know that spinach is high in iron, and therefore these women should not have been anemic. UCLA compared a sample of spinach they had from 1953 to a sample from 1997. The findings were astounding! A whopping 43 bowls of spinach in 1997 = 1 bowl of spinach in 1953. That 43:1 ratio is the same for ALL the other 59 minerals we need on a daily basis. And…when you don’t have your minerals, even your vitamins can’t be used by the body! All this information made me realize that I wasn’t getting all the nutrients I needed on a daily basis.

The other part to this perfect nutrition is that it helps rid the body of the junk that builds up in our cells. Our bodies are exposed to so many toxins on a daily basis…from the air we breathe, personal care products we use, and so much more. These toxins build up in our cells and basically junk up our body. Our bodies actually put on fat to protect us from the toxins we are exposed to. When we get rid of the impurities in our cells, our body no longer has a need for the fat.

Other “side effects” of nutritional cleansing (getting rid of the junk) besides weight loss are:

Lose Nasty Cravings
Improved Sleep
Increased Lean Muscle
Healthy Aging
Improved Digestion
Better Athletic Performance
And so much more!

By incorporating nutritional cleansing into my lifestyle, my body is now getting all 90 nutrients it needs on a daily basis. This also goes for the rest of the family because these products are great for them also! Our family also has saved so much money on our overall grocery bill!

Was I skeptical in the beginning? Absolutely I was skeptical, but these products come with a 30-day money back guarantee. I had nothing to lose but those unwanted pounds and my intense carbohydrate cravings! Of course I didn’t need to use that money back offer, because I truly felt amazing after my first 30 days and will never be without these products in my home!

If you are ready to feel the best you have ever felt, now is the perfect time to get started. The company is offering free shipping up to $25 for new customers (on qualifying orders) through January 17, and it would be my honor to coach you to better health! I’m here to help you succeed and reach your health goals with recipes, a private Facebook support group, accountability, and much more! Take a peek at this 6 minute Video called “Are You Toxic?” Find me on Facebook at Leanne Selle; private message me, and I can add you to our private Facebook group for you to do some more homework for yourself! We have 2 different 30-day health challenges starting this month. The first one started January 4 and the second one starts January 18. Join me for both of them! Let’s make 2016 our healthiest year together!

God’s blessings on your 2016!

Leanne Selle
Health & Wellness Coach
(920)470-4814
leaneselle@gmail.com

Let’s Set Some Mostly Measurable, Manageable Goals for January

This post contains affiliate links and goals. Thought you ought to know.

I don’t like New Year’s resolutions, because, for example, let’s say you resolve to fit into that size smaller jeans and find out two weeks later that you’re pregnant–celebratory fail! Let’s say it’s super important to you to quit watching television, but then your grandfather invites you to spend every Saturday, Sunday, Monday and sometimes Thursday of football season watching games with him. Are you really going to say no? And why are there so many game days anyway? You just don’t know what the day is going to bring, much less the year.

I’ve tried resolutions. I’ve tried no resolutions. At the end of the year, there’s no difference. This year, I’m trying a new tactic. I’m setting mostly measurable, manageable monthly goals. Care to join me?

Here are the ridiculously obvious rules for my mostly measurable, manageable monthly goals:

They should be mostly measurable, so “smile more” really doesn’t follow this rule…although I’m putting it on there anyway. Walk three times a week is measurable. See? Make more pie–not measurable; make a pie–totally measurable…and edible…hopefully.
It’s manageable. No stressing…which would be a goal in and of itself if it were more measurable.
It’s a monthly goal.

Don’t freak out when you see the length of this list. Most of the items are small things that I need to be more consistent about. Others are general areas of my life that need a little refocusing now that we’re heading back out on the road. Some are bigger tasks. None are radical. They are all written down or else, bam, I forget.

Here are my mostly measurable manageable monthly goals for January: